Reference may be made to the following U.S. Pat. of interest: U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,358,431; 2,276,768; and 1,212,190.
A typical beehive includes a hive body, and at least a top and bottom cover board. There may also be included a top screen element, a bottom screen element, or a section commonly known as a "super" hive body. In the practice of migratory beekeeping, transporting of the beehive is required, necessitating clamping of the beehive elements during transfer to prevent relative movement of the hive elements.
The aforementioned U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,358,431, and 2,276,768 illustrate two proposed devices for clamping the beehive elements during transit. In general, such clamping devices require nailing wooden strips or metal staples into the hive elements or utilizing a reinforced tape. These devices tend to deface the beehive elements and promote premature decay. Some of these suggested techniques also are not versatile and thus cannot be used with various combinations of different sized beehive elements. Furthermore, after transfer, some of the suggested techniques prevent or at least inhibit easy manipulation and interchange of beehive elements. In addition, some of the suggested devices require a hammer during installation which leads to undesired upsetting of the bees.
Other devices proposed include internal rods which must be carefully inserted through all of the beehive elements during installation. While the internal rods perform satisfactorily for clamping and transferring, they require extra work and care during application or removal to reduce as much as possible undesired irritation of the bees.
Therefore, it is desired to provide a device which can be readily installed onto and removed from a beehive for clamping a variety of sizes of beehive elements together without relative movement, and which enables the hive to be lifted and moved with safety to the workers as well as to the bees.